Oklahoma Man Found Guilty of Murder in Deaths of Long Beach Woman and Her 4-Year-Old Daughter

Share this:

An Oklahoma man Friday was found guilty of fatally shooting a Long Beach mother and her 4-year-old daughter in 2016, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced.

Luis Anaya is seen with his daughter, Jennabel Anaya, and girlfriend, Carina Mancera, in a photo posted to a GoFundMe page.

Brandon Colbert, 23, was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for the shooting deaths of Carina Mancera, 26, and her daughter Jennabel, and the attempted murder of Mancera’s longtime boyfriend, Luis Anaya.

The jury also found true the special circumstances allegations of lying in wait and multiple murders, the DA’s office said.

Prosecutors said that Colbert hid behind a sign and opened fire on the family with a shotgun as they were returning home in August 2016.

Colbert left the scene and was arrested days later for stealing a car. The stolen car charges were dropped, but police matched DNA evidence found on a shotgun shell at the crime scene to Colbert and he was arrested for the homicides months later.

Brandon Colbert, 23, acts as his own attorney at a preliminary hearing in his murder case. (Credit: Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

The motive behind the shooting, described as an ambush, remains unclear, but Colbert’s family told the Los Angeles Times that he had a history of mental illness and drug use, and his behavior worried them.

He abruptly boarded a Greyhound bus from Tulsa to Southern California days before the shooting.

Colbert is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 2 and faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.